It all started about 7 years ago when Kevin and I had a crazy idea about riding our bikes from Illinois to St Germain Wisconsin.   One of those “wouldn’t it be cool to…” types of discussions.  Most of the time those ideas don’t happen, but this idea did get me thinking.   I thought about it for about a year and in the end put. Plan together that started our first ride.  It was originally called the “Ride to Michigan” as we decided we wanted to do the entire state of Wisconsin from the Illinois border to the Michigan border.  It has since been renamed the Ride Across Wisconsin (RAW).  Note – I did fail to do a proper branding check and have since discovered that Trek Bicycle company has been doing a ride with the same name for several years before ours developed.  So, no, I can’t sell any shirts or such lol.  After the first ride it “spun out of control” and morphed into an annual ride with the goal of trying to ride in every county in Wisconsin.  So the little idea kind of became a cool little thing for me.  Here are the rides prior to this year.

• RAW 1 2017 (Ride to Michigan) was from Orangeville IL to near the Sylvania Wilderness in the U.P. of Michigan – 4 days and 333 miles.

• RAW 2  2018 (Mississippi river to Lake Michigan) was from Dubuque IA to Kenosha, Wi – 2 days and 183 miles.

• RAW 3 2019 (Ride to Lake Superior) was from the Illinois border south of Sinsinsawa, WI to Ashland Wi – 4 days and 383 miles.

• RAW 4 2020 (Mid-State Ride) was from LaCrosse WI to Sheboygan WI – 2 days and 220 miles.

• RAW 5 2021 (Lake Winnebago Ride) was from Rockton IL to Marinette WI – 3 days and 260 miles.

• No RAW in 2022 as I was busy doing other riding…)

This year I marked up a map of Wisconsin and started looking for routes that would cover new areas and allow me to experience different parts of the state.  I discovered a published route called the Great River Road which follows the Mississippi from East Dubuque IL to Prescott, WI.  Thus RAW 6 was born (The Great River Ride).  I modified our start to leave from Council Hill IL to see some different area since two other rides started near East Dubuque.

It was planned as a 4 day ride to cover 265 miles and would end when we crossed over the Mississippi River into Hastings MN.  A friend and I started that ride yesterday.

As a note, all of these rides have included at least one other brave soul, and sometimes a group of folks.  It makes the ride much more fun to share experiences with someone!   

Our Day 1 started in Council Hill at about 8am and took us across beautiful valleys and typical southern Wisconsin scenery with farms and small towns everywhere. After about 20 miles we hit the Mississippi River valley and also some very big climbs and descents. Lunch was in Potosi and we finished the day in Cassville Wi at a cool little motel right on the river. The motel had a small pool which was great to cool off in and relax. Our challenge was dinner…. Most places were closed or closed early in Cassville so we walked ALOT to find something open. In the end we found a little place – but the food wasn’t great. Filling and helped replace calories – but not great. We did find the local BP had breakfast sandwiches for the next morning. It was a great first day that included lots of time sitting out by the river, watching boats and watching trains (the BNSF tracks run right along the river). This is a much different perspective of Wisconsin from the other trips. Just what we were looking for! Total for day 1 was 50 miles and 2,999’ of hills climbed.